Virginia Tech Rights the Ship Against East Carolina, Beats the Pirates 54-17

Hokies score in all three phases of the game to move to 3-1 on the season.

When Justin Fuente announced Virginia Tech's special teams player of the week, he likely had no clue the fire he lit under his team.

Greg Stroman rocked the number 25 jersey, and quickly proved Fuente's decision a wise one. He took East Carolina's opening punt 87 yards to the house, and the Hokies kickstarted a 54-17 drubbing of the Pirates with a vintage "Beamerball" score.

"It was really cool," Fuente said. "When I announced it to the team on Thursday, you could see Greg just light up. It meant something to him. Not that it hasn't meant something to the other guys. I cautioned him, 'I know this is important to you, but this doesn't mean that we bring kickoffs back form 9 yards deep in the endzone. We can still fair catch a punt.' But you trust him and his decision making to do what's best for the team. For him to take one to the house, I know there were a bunch of people that was really special for."

It was the second career punt return touchdown for Stroman, who came into the game primed to take one to the house.

"I was definitely ecstatic when (Fuente) announced (the No. 25) was mine," Stroman said. "I talked to the (punt) return team and they were wanting me to get in there with it on. It really worked out."

Indeed, and that was just the start for the Hokies. Tech scored in all three phases of the game, blocked a punt as well as a field goal, and managed a sack for a safety.

For the second straight game, Bud Foster's defense was outstanding. After giving up 169 yards rushing to QB James Summers last year, Foster had the perfect scheme to slow down ECU's running threat when he entered the game.

"I liked our plan. I liked the way our kids practiced this week," Foster said. "We had anticipated — with (Summers), from what we had seen on film of him at quarterback, and we'd heard during the week — he was going to be involved a little bit more in the offense. I know they like their quarterback (Philip Nelson), and I felt like they were gonna figure (Summers) in a little bit more at running back."

Summers' day ended with a paltry 34 yards on 10 rushing attempts. Although, ECU QB Philip Nelson connected on two long touchdown passes in garbage time.

"We gave away a couple of cheap plays," Foster said. "That was disappointing, but I'll say this, it's hard to keep these teams down that throw it around and have some dynamic athletes. It's just hard to do that. That's something that we can correct and improve on, but all-in-all, I was really pleased with our efforts."

Behind another lights out defensive performance, Virginia Tech's offense was able to find its rhythm in the second quarter. The Hokies parlayed that momentum into a 38-0 halftime advantage, and Fuente was certainly pleased with the early points his offense has put up thus far this season.

"I think our guys are starting to learn how we want them to prepare," Fuente said. "That doesn't guarantee that we'll jump out on everybody like that...I hope they're seeing the success they're having when they're doing it the way we're asking them to do it. I don't know if that'll be a trend — I'll be all for it if it is — but I like our approach."

Jerod Evans, who has thrown 13 touchdowns against one pick, ranks statistically among the upper echelon of ACC QBs. Fuente was complimentary of his quarterback's decision making today, something he has preached since coming to Virginia Tech.

"I think he's been pretty good," Fuente said. "Pretty judicious with the ball. Going the right place most of the time. He had a couple balls that I wish we could give guys a little better chance to catch today. But, we made some plays. Obviously he made a big play with his feet there in the second half. He's been pretty efficient."

That aforementioned run was reminiscent of the Lane Stadium touchdown scampers from Mike Vick and Tyrod Taylor. After scrambling to his left, Evans cut back across the middle, picked up some nice blocking on the permitter, and made some ankle-breaking jukes to score from 55 yards out.

"When I broke the first tackle and I went to the right, I had a feeling that, with the blocking that I had in front of me, I said it might could go," Evans said. "I just followed them. They did a hell of a job getting in front of me (to block)."

Always the self-critic, Evans immediately found flaws from today's game that could be improved upon, notably, his downfield passing.

"Personally, I need to work on completing the freaking ball downfield," Evans said with a grin. "Missed a couple here and there. Missed a dig (route) to Isaiah (Ford). Missed him on a go-route at the beginning of the third quarter...I have a lot of things I can clean up, for sure, that I wish I could have back."

One deep ball Evans connected on was a 55-yard strike to receiver Cam Phillips. Phillips finished the game with an unusual stat line for a wideout — one catch, one TD, one blocked punt, and a half sack via a fake punt in the fourth quarter.

"It's like a Krispy Kreme doughnut with the hot sign on," Phillips said of how it feels to see the offense clicking.

"Yeah, I put a brick in 'Sacksburg' today," he said of his first career sack.

Statistical Notes

In their last two games, the Hokies have outscored Boston College and East Carolina 103-17. It is their first back-to-back games with 49 points offensively since beating Rutgers and Syracuse in 1999.

With two blocks on the day, the Hokies now have 42 field goal blocks and 68 punt blocks in the last 30 seasons.

Isaiah Ford now sits one TD catch behind Antonio Freeman (22) for the all-time record at Virginia Tech.

Bud Foster picked up his 200th career win as the defensive or co-defensive coordinator at Virginia Tech.

The fact that Fuente still has this attitude of "There's quite a bit that we need to do if we want to improve as a team" after outscoring teams in our past 2 games 103-17 is just so great to see...that attitude of "always do better" is clearly passing on to the players, and it seems like they've all come out in the past few games just really full of energy and playing way above the level of the teams they've been playing once they get going.

I remember after they hired him during that summer being excited when him and his assistants were talking in interviews about the attitude and sense of urgency he wanted to bring to this team. It seems to be all coming together. (Insert evil laugh while slowly wringing hands together)

I offer this additional praise of the current staff (Fuente ?) - I can't find who said it, but earlier this year one of them said something along the lines of "we need to see more emotion from the special teams when we do something good". What the staff is selling, the team is buying. We are seeing more celebration as a team for good play. Stroman made reference to the same thing ("I talked to the (punt) return team and they were wanting me to get in there with it on. It really worked out.") and guys were putting their hands in up in celebration before he even crossed the goal line.

It reminds me if a metaphor an Oregon fan used during the Chip years, "the other team is always trying to dig out of a hole". That's what we're doing to teams, tell Bud that you need two good quarters of defense and you'll pour so many points on they abandon the run. That's a recipe for success boys.

All of this coupled with the fact that I have not had so much fun in Lane Stadium for years. It really took me back to 2004 when I was young and didnt know what I was introducing myself to. Let's keep it up and that Thursday night we play Miami will be sold out and Lane will be packed to the gills.

I got bitten by the Hokies football bug in 2004 as well during my first year at Tech. Things were so different then. We expected to dominate every game, there were no games which were supposed to be losses for us, every game it seems had 4-5 sacks, 2 interceptions by the the defence, a 150 yard rushing performance by any tailback on offense, opposition playing timid and conservative on special teams, and there was a buzz around the program. Nice to see us getting that swag back. Bright days ahead Hokies..

His step-sister attended VT 2012-2015. Funny how different that experience was.

"Our job as coaches is to influence young people's lives for the better in terms of fundamental skills, work ethic, and doing the right thing. Every now and again, a player actually has that effect on the coaching staff." Justin Fuente on Sam Rogers

When Teller decides to play hard he's phenomenal, sometimes he just seems like he goes through the motions walking through a play not really applying a block. Now that we are entering ACC portion of our schedule, he needs to been 'on' more plays than not. He's fun to watch when he's in beast mode.

Not just Teller. Watch Nijman the end pushes outside he turns around and sprints 60 yards down field to take out someone on 5yd line. Looks like he's running 4.5 40yd. Then in the end zone every lineman except Gallo is there in addition to Cam and Sam. That play pretty much sums up how far we've come on offense.

I think our OL is going to come through this year. Granted Gallo is not the fastest player in the world, but it appears to me he is the first player down inside the five yard line on that play turning around in a circle looking to block somebody as Evans is propelled across the goal line. It might have been all he could do to move his big, bulky butt 55 yards down field. Let's make him run 200 meter intervals on 15 seconds rest this week. His snaps seemed good this week.

What I liked about him during that signing epoch of the Fab 4 was how much it appeared that he wanted to be a Hokie.

Hats off to Babcock! He found just what we needed in a coach. Whit has built a program with a future, and in year 1 and we are already seeing vision of it. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Coach Fuente IS the right man for the job.

Dude that is freaking awesome! Has anyone every caught a td, blocked a kick and had a sack in the same game before?

I can imagine no more rewarding a career. And any man who may be asked in this century what he did to make his life worthwhile, I think can respond with a good deal of pride and satisfaction:
“I served in the United States Navy"

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You know what chap's my ass? Isaiah Ford's lack of effort. He totally overthrew that TD pass and we had to wait like ten whole seconds for him to make up for it. Un-friggin-acceptable. /s

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He and Justin both mentioned after the game that he needs to work on downfield passing. But the kid is 4th in the nation in QB rating. You're not gonna hit ever long ball that's thrown. Be excited that he is taking care of the football and making smart decisions. Kid is gonna be fun to watch this year.

"I was definitely ecstatic when (Fuente) announced (the No. 25) was mine," Stroman said. "I talked to the (punt) return team and they were wanting me to get in there with it on. It really worked out." I'll say it did and I believe he was really aware of it because as he went through the end zone (0:30 of the film clip) he was immediately pointing to the "25" on his jersey. Way to go, Stroman, for the incredible return and honoring Coach Beamer in the moment of it all.

Pretty awesome to see how Cam has responded after getting taken out early vs. BC. He got the message and has been playing his ass off since then. Good on Cam for taking the right approach and not sulking.

Feels like the energy on this team is different as well. Cam could be going down the Marcus Davis route but he seems to have seen the benefits of doing the non glamorous things right. Plus he got a nice TD last game along with the special teams plays.

1. You both obviously know me and know how much I HATE pants, so who are you? lol
2. Did you see me yesterday to know that I had pants on?
3. Under my pants, I had on basketball shorts. If you eve see me in pants, there's a 263% chance I have ball shorts on under them. As a side note, if you ever see me in cargo shorts, I have ball shorts on under them. lol

"Our job as coaches is to influence young people's lives for the better in terms of fundamental skills, work ethic, and doing the right thing. Every now and again, a player actually has that effect on the coaching staff." Justin Fuente on Sam Rogers

No joke. There's nothing worse than heading into a bye week after a loss. Or as LOLUVa fans call it "every bye week"

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Amazing game to experience as a fan. There were so many exciting moments
and the atmosphere was one of the best I've been to. You've got the punt return,
punt block, safety, multiple exciting TD's. It was a good time.

It was a good win. However the run game had better get a lot more effective. The run blocking was not good and more than once backs missed the hole when it was there. Evans and Ford make a special offensive weapon but cannot be expected to have great games every week.

I love Sam's play, but I saw several plays where he was trying to hit a hole that wasn't there, while a gaping hole was open to the right or left. Mac, Shai and Predator would have seen the holes and hit them.

He seems most effective in catching the ball in short dump off passes when coming out of the backfield uncovered. Love the way our play calling keeps our opponents wondering what the heck they'll see next.

The offense has missed on some deep balls behind the defense for sure TDs, the run game seems hit-or-miss, the defense gave up some big plays and lost leverage too often on others, even the special teams could probably use more consistency from Ludwig, and better blocking on kickoff returns.

And yet we've scored 103 points and given up 17 in two games. I like this team.

Best guess: Since the full back position has in essence been done away with (and he was stuck behind sam rogers anyway), why not take a kid with a great attitude and fantastic work ethic and toughness and put him at a position he could contribute on defense. The picture of his tackle looked pretty solid, although I can't tell what position they have him playing.

So frickin tired of getting shit from those fans over the years here in NC. Was nice to see everyone in purple and gold tuck tail and quietly walk the other direction after the game when out and about yesterday. Such a wonderful breath of fresh air.

In other news I hope we skullfuck UNC in a couple weeks. Tickets are cheap on StubHub for whoever wants to paint Kenan Maroon.

"Some days you’re a horse and some days you’re a horse’s ass. I’ve been a horse’s ass for a little while." - Roy Halladay

UNC fans are the absolute worst football fans in my experience.
1.) They don't tailgate unless it's at a catered University-sponsored event
2.) They ONLY cheer when they are on offense.
3.) They leave the stadium when their team is down by 21 - (7 * Quarter number).
4.) They leave the stadium if neither team has scored a touchdown in the 1st quarter.

We're spending the weekend in Charleston, SC so I won't be able to make it for The UNC game, but I plan to be decked out in maroon and orange anyways! I've heard rumors that Hokies gather at Mellow Mushroom on King Street to watch the game, so that may be a possibility as well!

"Tyrod, looking desperately, now throws it deep, has a man open, CAUUUGHT! Danny Coale, all the way!"

I have 3 favorite teams. VT, Kentucky, and whoever the hell is playing Tennessee.

In its current form, probably not. In the short run, we're gonna lose Ford and Bucky this spring, so we won't have the same vertical consistency, but that can be worked around. Also if Cornelson keeps this up, he's gonna fall bass ackwards into a HC gig within 5 years. So we should expect scheme changes in the medium run. But I think Fuente is ours for good, so the attitude, the tenacity, the spirit, and the points are going to be hallmarks of VT football for a long time.

We all know the ground cannot cause a fumble.
He has control of the ball on the way down.
His left foot hits first in bounds.
When his back hits the ball is jarred loose and end up in his lap.
He regains control of the ball.

Only if the ball hit the ground. If he bobbled it, while inbounds but then recovered control, it would be a completed pass.
In this case it was incomplete because when he bobbled it, he was on his back out of bounds.

I'm not sure what the definition of garbage time is, but the beginning of the 2nd half with all starters on the field is definitely not garbage time. If one team can score X amount of points in the first half, then the other team can score X amount of points in the second half.

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So in like, 60,000 NFL and D-1 games or whatever the number is, no team has ever come back from more than a 35 pt deficit. So is 38 pts possible? Sure...in theory. But it's still garbage time mentally for a player - rah rah, must keep focused, anything could happen chatter from fans aside.

optimistically, yes, but I'll know a lot better in two weeks. At that point, we'll have seen how we hold up against better competition (UNC) and Miami will have played FSU. I don't see two conference losses for Miami, honestly. So, if we can't beat them head to head, we don't sneak in behind their backs.

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